↳ ❝ [ ⱤɄ₦ ₣ØⱤ ɎØɄⱤ Ⱡł₣Ɇ] ¡! ❞

TW: Censored swearing, gore

↳ MATTHEW

"Sorry, Mr Graves, your evidence... is not valid. It's... well, to put it plainly, it just looks... like a blur of white and black. That... doesn't mean anything, really, so..." The woman said, her voice sounding crackly through the telephone. She's tired of him insisting, Matthew could tell. He sighed and put down the telephone on the receiver. 

The bed creaked as he sat down, putting his head in his hands. A draft blew through the open window, chilling him to the bone. He trembled, and self-consciously hugged himself. As he looked to the side, he spotted the lonely photo lying on his night table. 

He picked up that photo. You could tell that this was taken inside a car, with the steering wheel visible on the side of the photo. You could also tell that the picture was taken by shaky hands. The glass was broken, the edges jagged and sharp, also stained with a dark color, not very clear as it was nighttime. Outside the shattered window, was a blur of gray color. It wasn't very discernible as the foggy sky was almost that shade of color, but it was a little paler. It was different.

And Matthew was convinced those were ghosts.

This was the only proof he had, except for his memory, the actual proof no one believed. He had exceptional memory, everyone said, truly exceptional. Yet it was a totally different story when he retold the story of his parents' deaths, suddenly he was hallucinating, suddenly he was insane, suddenly he didn't have that same exceptional memory again.

'People are f*cked up.' thought Matthew bitterly. 

He knew what happened, even though he was only at the young age of five. 

Matthew was sitting on the carpet, color pencils clutched in his chubby fist. Scribbling on the white paper, Matthew giggled every once in a while, apparently drawing was very funny to the boy. 

It was this small bubble of peacefulness around Matthew that made him oblivious to the howling sound of the wind outside. Maybe he was too young to notice, but despite the whistling winds, none of the trees and grass were affected. Everything was still.

But his parents noticed. And they knew something was up. Rushing into the living room, Matthew heard the urgent footsteps and looked up, his face curious. 'Matt. We have to go, darling.' His mom said. Matthew searched her voice for any sign of teasing a surprise visit.. to Disneyland, maybe. But there wasn't. She was completely serious, and there were hints of fear in her voice, though hidden well.

Her mom put a struggling smile on her face and grabbed Matthew's hand. She said,'Come on, Matt...' Matthew let himself be led out of the living room by his mother. He looked back, subtly, at his paper with his childish drawings. His eyes widened as he got one glance of his drawing.

Somehow, and he didn't remember doing it, he had drawn a ghost. 

His mother closed the lights, and Matthew followed her to the car, where his dad was putting two big suitcases into the trunk. They got into the car quickly, and Matthew couldn't help but notice his mother's hand shaking.

The car zoomed off.

Minutes later, they were driving on the highway. Matthew was scared of the silence in the car. His nervous eyes darted around, and he had to restrain himself from crying. The silence was too much. He wanted to understand everything.

A tear dripped down Matthew's face. 

Then the car jolted to a stop. Matthew was lurched forward, before crumpling on the floor of the car. His parents were thrown forward too. His mom gasped as she realized Matthew was on the floor. 'Matt! Did you unbuckle your seatbelt? Are you okay?' Matthew's seatbelt was indeed unbuckled. But he didn't unbuckle it, definitely not.

Matthew rubbed his bruised forehead before climbing onto his seat,'I... didn't...' His mom sighed,'I know you don't understand right now, Matt, but please, we're going to your aunt's house, okay? I promise I'll explain everything.'

Matthew could only nod fearfully. 

'Dammit, this car is broken or something..' His dad said, his voice was full of frustration. 'Are you serious?'  His mom whispered, the fear in her voice evident,'No... then how are we-' Matthew never knew how that sentence ended, because just in that second someone crashed through the window, charging straight at his parents. 

Matthew screamed, so did his parents. It was too fast for anyone to react. Dark claws pierced the chests of his parents, scratching, clawing, tearing at the insides. Something dark colored spilled out, staining the seats, staining the window. It was blood, Matthew knew. The screams faltered as his parents died. 

Matthew was scrambling backwards, but he had nowhere to go. He started crying, tears streaming down his poor face, his soul blackened and traumatized. Matthew could only turn away. He was too timid to charge forward and save his parents. He turned away to face the seats, kneeling and sobbing. His fingernails dug into his palm as he clenched his fists.

Suddenly, the seatbelt reared up, turning into black tentacles. Matthew stopped crying for a second, absolutely horrified, staring up at the inky tentacles, writhing and curling around him. Then he was slammed into the seat, the tentacles grabbed hold of him and wrapped around him tightly. He struggled, screaming in pain. But it was too tight. The tentacles were suffocating, and he was about to meet the same fate as his parents...

Then the creature, the ghost, who had killed his parents, floated up to him, his claws coated with blood, his mouth gaped open and hissing, strands of saliva like a sticky web hanging from his long fangs. Matthew stopped crying entirely. He was paralyzed in fear, afraid and helpless. A low, hoarse, yet deafening hiss erupted from his open mouth, screaming into Matthew's face.

Then the car tilted suddenly. Matthew was almost thrown to the side but the tentacles caught him, bounding him tightly to the seat. He could only glance out the window, as the car began to careen to the left, towards the fence of the road, by itself. But his parents were dead... Matthew began to try and stand up, but his legs weren't long enough to reach the ground...

It crashed onto the fence, denting it immediately. The horrifying ghost had disappeared, vanished... The car revved backwards and charged again and again at the fence, until it finally broke. Matthew wanted to scream as the car fell down the cliff, but his throat was hoarse. He struggled again and again to escape from these tentacles, but they weren't letting go, no, the car was falling, his parents were dead, and certainly he would suffer the same fate.

The car fell headfirst into the forest below as Matthew sat helplessly, bound and terrified.

The tentacles had saved him, miraculously. As the car's front broke into smithereens, Matthew wasn't launched forward, because the tentacles prevented it. The alive seatbelt, the writhing snakes of darkness, saved him. Matthew gave a hoarse, rough laugh at the thought.

He survived the crash. He was now 30, and all that, all that was 25 years ago.

And yet he never gave up trying to find out what killed his parents. That vivid memory would not stop haunting him no matter what he tried. So he dedicated his life to finding out. It was something paranormal, Matthew was sure. But was it a ghost at all?

Matthew could only remember the gaping mouth and bloody fangs. He couldn't remember anything else. As great as his memory was, the five-year-old Matthew had blotted out the other details, and left the most terrifying parts in his memory. That was fair enough.

Matthew ran a hand through his hair as he flipped the photo over and over again. The photo was presumably captured by the camera stationed in front of the car, which was now utterly damaged. He had found this photo in his parents' old computer, when he was going back to his old house to find more information.

In an email, sent after his parents' death, by someone called 'anonymous'. 

Which was retrieved from that camera which was most definitely broken.

Matthew had freaked out when he realized this, but he printed the picture out anyways, got the f*ck out of that house, and pondered over it for about an hour, before hesitantly sending the photo to P.I.A., Paranormal Investigating Agency. Of course, they denied it.

So now he was back to square one.

'Tonight is really cold, goddamn..' thought Matthew, as he got to his feet and walked over to the window, closing it. He blinked, staring out the window in a daze for a minute, then shook his head. What was he doing? Yet he couldn't tear his eyes away from the window. 

A scream echoed in his mind, then the wind began to blow fiercely at the window, making it rattle. Matthew clutched at the windowsill, somehow-he didn't want to look, no- he was still fixated at the view outside, which he had seen so many times. But his body wasn't in his control anymore.

Something charged at the window. Then the mouth that Matthew so clearly remembered appeared, disembodied and just as creepy, the fangs gnashing and opening, closing, opening, closing. Matthew got glimpses of the red, slimy cavern behind the fangs, filled with bloody flesh.

Someone screamed again, in his mind. Matthew blinked and suddenly, everything was gone. The mouth was gone, the wind wasn't howling furiously, and the screams had faded away. Matthew felt his heart racing as he rigidly raised a hand to put to his chest.

Ragged  breaths escaped his open mouth. He stumbled backwards and his legs hit the bed. He sat down shakily. 

'What the actual f*ck...' thought Matthew,'That... was that real?

↳ ❝ [ ɎØɄ ₵₳₦ ⱤɄ₦ ฿Ʉ₮ ɎØɄ ₵₳₦'₮ ⱧłĐɆ] ¡! ❞

↳ A/N
-This is not an applyfic

-This is an entry for horror writing competition! Go join it, it's pretty simple and easy ^^

-Word Count: 1665

-Cover will be made later cause I'm lazy